Vegetable patch advice please?

[conflictedmum82]

Hello everyone, I am brand new to any sort of gardening and I think I have been optimistically spontaneous and created a vegetable patch with very little research.

As a single mum of 3 I am looking at ways to save money. I’ve bought a fabric 8 compartment vegetable patch from Amazon, filled it with compost and planted broccoli, peas, radishes, cauli, cucumbers, and potatoes 😳

any advice from seasoned gardeners would be very welcome as I’m fairly sure I’ve been a bit too gung ho!

I wouldn't expect to save masses of money this year but it'll be a really good learning experience for next year! The cucs and peas will need support - maybe a little teepee or upright cane for the cucumber, twiggy branching sticks for the peas (google 'pea sticks').

Main tip: everything will need much much more water than you expect in this weather. Real deep watering, especially with small pockets of compost.

Edit to add- the broccoli will need netting over it to stop cabbage white butterflies laying their eggs on it- the caterpillars eat a huge amount of brassica leaves in a short time.

When did you plant them? It's rather late for potatoes if they've just gone in, unless you can keep them frost free and have new potatoes for Xmas.

Net the brocoli. It will be devoured by caterpillars if you don't.

For the future, if it's a money-saving exercise I'd not bother with potatoes. They take up a lot of space for almost half the year and are cheap to buy. Concentrate on things that grow fast and/or cost more in shops. Salad is great for 'fast' and berries for 'cheaper to grow than buy'.

Strawberries should do well in a multicompartment planter. For raspberries or blueberries you'd want a separate large pot (or in the ground for raspberries). And they're all perennials, so you buy the plant once and have fruit forever (Strawberries need regular refreshing by planting up the runners every other year, but that's free).

And I agree salad and strawberries would be excellent for next year. Personally I'd also grow the peas again even though they're not a huge money saver- picking and podding them is a real memorable experience for kids.

Try tomatoes instead of potatoes next year. A cherry type.

And yes - lots of water.

For peas and beans, I always recommend non-green types. Partly because they are different from what you can buy in Tesco, and partly because yellow and purple are much easier to see among the leaves when you're picking.

Seeds are always cheaper than plants.

Climbing plants generally give a much better yield for the space than non-climbing. But the latter may grow faster, so you can mix and match - e.g. dwarf beans for an early crop in the same space as something slower growing, then climbing in their own compartment for volume.

And interplant to make the most of space. Plant small and fast things such as rocket, lambs lettuce, or dill in the spaces around your other crops - it gives you more variety, no bare earth means fewer weeds, and the mix of smells can confuse pests.